Do we need wills?

[CultureAlienationBoredomandDespair]

Me and DH have never had a will as we’ve never had anything to leave! We’re now in the process of buying our first home and wondering if we should.

The house will be purchased after DH inherited money and the whole process seems to have been made more complicated due to a will as everything has had to go through executors.

We would like to leave everything to each other and then 50/50 to our children (2 DC). In that case is it worth it or will it just slow things down?

A beneficiary can't be a witness but can be a executor.

There's an argument re you not appointing a solicitor as executor in case they are very slow to deal with the estate or are incompetent etc. etc. It would be difficult / impossible for the beneficiaries remove them as the beneficiaries didn't appoint them.

You should appoint the chief beneficiaries as executors and if they can't/won't act they can appoint a solicitor themselves. They then have the power to change solicitor if they are dissatisfied .

A beneficiary CAN be an executor.

I think you're thinking of a witness who CAN'T be a beneficiary.

Brilliant of @Badbadbunny to highlight this. There are options which is why it is best to always talk through these things with a solicitor who specialises in wills and probate. Don't underestimate things like pensions and death in service money pay outs too.

Dh and I were always joint tenants but we are now tenants in common. If one of us dies their share goes to our 2 children (adults) so along with the surviving parent they own the house. Spouse 50% each child 25%. They cannot force a sale and the parent has a life time interest in the property.

if the parent downsizes all equity released goes to the remaining parent, not split between them and the children. If that parent then ends up needing care the children still inherit their 25% share.

If a child dies before we do then their share upon our death would go to any child but not until that child is 25 years old. There are so many different scenarios which is why you should talk to a solicitor.

@honeylulu our children are executors and beneficiaries. I am sure it is witnesses who cannot benefit from the will.

The wills I see or help draft where a professional (such as a solicitor) is appointed as the executor are where the beneficiaries don't get on or aren't particularly close (emotionally or geographically) as the person making will doesn't want to cause unnecessary stress/arguments after they've died.

My DH's mother has done exactly that. DH and his sister aren't particularly close and in the last decade or so had a few fallings out. Originally her will appointed them both as executors as well as the equal beneficiaries, but before she started down the dementia route, she realised they weren't getting on together so changed her will to appoint her solicitor as executor instead. As her dementia progressed, DH and his sister barely agreed on anything to do with her care - DH spent more time with her and knew she needed to be in a care home whereas his sister breezed in and out never spending enough time and believing their mother when she said she was still making her own meals, doing her garden, looking after her home, etc (she wasn't - we were doing all that!), so had no idea her dementia had got so bad, and wouldn't believe DH!

As she neared death, DH's sister finally realised we'd be right all along and finally accepted she needed 24/7 care, but it was too late and she died before it could be arranged. After that, she really mellowed and she and DH now get on really well in dealing with her house, personal stuff, etc., and she can't understand why the solicitor is the executor - we don't have the heart to remind her what a cow she'd been to DH over the past years so just trot out "she didn't want to stress you out with the formalities" platitudes as we don't want to rock the boat now that they're getting on well again!

Re. solicitors as executors, I had a problem with this before where an individual solicitor was appointed who was still alive but long since retired, and had fallen out with the colleagues still working at his old firm, so it was a pain getting him to renounce executorship so that I could act on my own. For my own will, I've appointed a company linked to my solicitor's firm which specifically deals with trustee services to act jointly with my family executors, so that they're not relying on one individual. This is just if DP and I both die while the children are little.

That's pretty rare.

The solicitors I work with always draft it something like "the owners, directors or members of xyz ltd" with a further clause to cover if the firm is sold "any other firm that has taken over the business of xyz ltd", so basically covers all eventualities. The same two clauses are in wills of all the solicitor firms I deal with so presumably are standard clauses in the "off the shelf" template package they use.

Pretty stupid really to use a specifically named solicitor, especially if they're older than the person making the will and even worse, with no additional clause stating what should happen if the named executor dies first!

All that is pretty much "Noddy" basic will drafting work.

I suppose not appointing a solicitor as executor keeps more options open. If the named lay executors have the time and ability to act, particularly if the bequests are not complex, then they save the estate from the expense of a big solicitor bill. But if it's more than they can deal with then they are free to appoint solicitors to act on their behalf.

(My cousin and I were executors of my grandparents wills but there were several complications and we both had small children and FT jobs to juggle, so we got probate solicitors to do quite a bit and we were free to appoint who we wanted.)

Yeah, it was a bit shit. To be fair, the will had been made about 30 years prior, and the solicitor was just a contingency - it was the spouse of the testator who was to be sole executor, failing whom, me and the solicitor. The spouse didn't really want to, so I said I would do it, but in the end it was going to be so much hassle getting the solicitor to renounce that I just did the work and had the spouse sign all the papers. It wasn't ideal though!

Yes definitely get wills done and letters of wishes.

Having had a parent die without making a will, please make a will as a priority. It was one of the most stressful experiences of my life.